Albania contrasts

I'm going to try to explain what it's like to visit and drive around Albania. Every country has its contrasts and in some they will be more marked than in others. We haven't specifically searched for the modern Albania, however any thoughts that it is somehow stuck in the past are wiped when you see the quality of the campsites, the industriousness of the people and the number of Audis and Mercedees on the road. However, for every Audi A7 or Land Rover Range Rover, there are two donkeys or mules pulling carts. For every car repair establishment, there's someone walking a cow along the road. 

One thing will come as a surprise. They have more car washes than you have ever seen. It might have been opportunistic Poles who setup hand-wash stations for cars, all over the UK, but here there are Lavazh everywhere. I mean every few hundred metres there is a sign and a guy ready to jet wash and vacuum your car. The Albanians might have taken over the car wash system from the Poles in some parts of the UK, but don't be fooled into thinking that this is some kind of opportunistic scam. It's a deep routed feature of the Albanian society that we have seen. The Albanians love clean cars! 

In Greece one came to expect to see herds of goats with a goatherd walking close by. They were almost always guarded by a dog, following the herd through the scrub. Here in Albania it's more often than not a flock of sheep, or a few cows by the side of the road.

The cows may or may not be tethered ; the sheep may or may not be hobbled (a front leg connected to a hind leg by a rope to prevent running away), there are still goats, donkeys and there are also pigs, usually walking free. Goodness knows what happens to the rose gardens.

There's a lot happening. Everyone seems busy. The sides of the road are teeming with 'industry'. My particular interest is the plethora of car parts for sale, usually next to a breakers yard. Dozens of wheels with tyres are neatly lined up for inspection prior to purchase. In other establishments there are rows of bumpers, bonnets and doors. All secondhand and ready for buyers.

The land that is cultivated seems to be divided into small strips, presumably attached to the houses next to them. There's not a lot of mechanisation, particularly when it comes to haymaking. We have seen mowing machines driven by tractors, but when it comes to turning the hay or "rowing-up', this is all done by hand. Over the past few days we have seen many young people helping in the fields. There are hay ricks and in some parts they have used a normal rectangular baler, only for the bales to be carted on a trailer pulled by a donkey, mule or even a pony.

There are no recognisable brands in the shops, and the few shops we have seen, tend to be small, presumably serving a local market. There's plenty of fresh food, whatever is currently being harvested.

We stopped to buy from a roadside stall and a boy of about seven called his father. We weighed and paid for tomatoes and a melon. Once we had done so, the father then took the bags back and doubled the quantities. He didn't seem to mind that I had parked on a large quantity of apricots laid out at the side of the road. I think they had gone to waste. Most of them were consumed by the tread of my BFGoodrich AT tyres and are now dried and stuck firmly to my mudflaps.

Everyone looks curiously at you, whether that's because they look at everyone or it's because of the steering wheel on the right handsome, I don't know. It can't be the Land Rover as they are reasonably common. We've seen at least one per day, mainly Defender TD5s but also a 200 or 300 TDi. Several have been painted white and I wonder if they have been in Kosovo.

We have stayed on three campsites in Albania and they are easily as good as the best anywhere, in terms of cleanliness and facilities. The quality of the installation of the toilet blocks is as good as you would expect in say Germany or the UK. The electrical hookups, for example have their own MCBs and where we are at the moment, they have waterproof socket outlets. In Greece and many other countries, you are lucky if the door fits.

Driving standards are generally poor. Dawn says that in the early 1990s there were only a couple of cars in the entire country. Now there are plenty, but the driving leaves a bit to be desired. One difficulty is knowing the right of way at junctions. That old French "priority a droite" rule is sometimes followed, but you never know when! On twisty mountain roads the Albanians love to cut the corners even when they can't see around them. The only way we can drive is to assume there's a "corner cutter" coming!

When the road is narrow, with real rough stuff off the edge, they continue at normal speed as they pass you and let the wheels drop onto the gravel and stones. This probably explains the market for secondhand wheels and tyres.

The police have stopped us twice. They are everywhere; very smart with peaked caps. Working in pairs they use lollipops (as on our railways) and request cars and lorries to pull in at random. We approached our first pair from a very small road where it joined the main road. They turned around, motioned for us to stop and leaning in through the window, Number 1 said "Leisure?" and Number 2 offered his hand for a handshake.

The second stop was on a main road, the lollipop was raised, we pulled in. This time #1 reached in to the front and although I shook his hand, as I presumed is usually the case, this time he wiggled an indicator stalk and I realised that I should have switched my headlamps on. Most cars are driving with daytime lights. Then he said "holiday?" and shook my hand!